- The UN, Turkey, and the Pope continue to demand that the peace negotiations with Russia and Ukraine be resumed.
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| The last face-to-face negotiations were at the end of March |
The last time the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams sat down to discuss a peace agreement in Ukraine was on March 29. From those conversations in Istanbul came a document with a draft agreement that was broken into a thousand pieces after Ukraine discovered the horror of the mass graves of Bucha and Borodianka, towns north of Kyiv.
It will be a month since then and the prospect of a diplomatic solution to the conflict seems distant. Neither Putin nor Zelensky is at the moment for the task of convening each other. Missiles continue to fall, the siege of Mariupol continues and suspicions and mutual distrust between neighboring countries grow. However, there are several initiatives underway to try to bring Russia and Ukraine back to the peace negotiations table.
International media have confirmed this Monday that Vladimir Putin has little interest in resuming the diplomatic route since he is committed to the warlike annexation of the east and south of the country, up to the border with Moldova. According to the Financial Times, Putin believes that peace efforts are at a "dead-end" specifically since the sinking of his flagship in the Black Sea, the Moskva.
For his part, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has stated this weekend that his country will reject any peace talks in the event that Russia holds a "referendum" in Kherson and that Russian troops finish off the defenders of Mariupol. "This will definitely prevent the end of the war through diplomatic channels," he assured.
However, there are some international actors, mainly the UN and Turkey, who have not entirely lost hope of reaching a peace agreement in Ukraine or, at least, a ceasefire:
The Turkish way: with the UN as a mediator
UN Secretary-General António Guterres meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday before traveling to Moscow, where he is scheduled to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
The meeting is part of the international diplomatic effort for a negotiated solution to the war between Russia and Ukraine. Erdogan has already conveyed to Zelensky that Turkey is willing to assume the role of a guarantor state for Ukraine's security in the event of a peace agreement with Russia. After his visit to Ankara, Guterres will continue his trip to Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Putin and on Thursday he will be in Kyiv to meet with Zelensky.
Despite being a member of NATO, Turkey has not joined Western sanctions against Russia and keeps its air links with Moscow open. Turkey proposes that Erdogan meets with Putin in Istanbul.
The Hungarian way: a ceasefire
The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, an ideological ally of Putin, has called on the Russian leader for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. The prime minister has spoken with Putin by telephone and has offered to organize a conference in the Hungarian capital between the parties to the conflict.
"I suggested that (Putin) ... the Ukrainian president, the French president, and the German chancellor hold a meeting here in Budapest, the sooner the better," Orban said. “It should not be a peace negotiation or a peace agreement, because that takes more time, but an immediate ceasefire agreement.” Hungary is a member of the European Union as well as NATO.
The religious way: letter from the pope
Pope Francis has written a letter to the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow Kirill in which he asks him to "end the darkness of the war" in Ukraine, which began on February 24.
"May Christ is a reality for the Ukrainian people, who yearn for a new dawn that will put an end to the darkness of war," the Pontiff stressed in the brief letter published on the Vatican's communication page, Vatican News.
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| The Pope and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow talk about the situation in Ukraine |
In the letter, which he has also addressed to other patriarchs of the fourteen Orthodox branches of Christianity, on the occasion of Easter they celebrated this Sunday, as marked by the Julian calendar, the pontiff has asked that the Holy Spirit transform their hearts and become true peacemakers.
"Especially for war-torn Ukraine, so that the great Paschal step from death to new life in Christ becomes a reality for the Ukrainian people, who yearn for a new dawn that will end the darkness of war," he said. urged.